Docomomo Rehabilitation Award (DRAW) 2021

The Trenton Bath House has been widely accepted as the building in which Louis I. Kahn first made the full distinction between "Servant" and "Served" space. Kahn did not flinch from acknowledging the impact this had on his own future development, always making clear that "Servant" and "Served" space provided a way for him to define his own architectural path. Kahn believed his distinct spatial hierarchies were able to liberate his work from loyalty to Modernism's free plan, as he made poignantly clear when he stated in 1961, "Now when I did the bath house, the Trenton Bath House, I discovered a very simple thing. I discovered that certain spaces are the real raison d'etre for doing what we are doing. But the small spaces were contributing to the strength of the larger spaces. They were serving them. And when I realized there were servant areas and there were areas served, that difference, I realized I didn't have to work for Corbusier any more. At that moment I realized I don't have to work for him at all." Comparing his private dependence on the Bath House to the public reception of the Richards Medical Research Building, Kahn noted, "If the world discovered me after I designed the Richards Medical Research Building, I discovered myself after designing that little concrete block bath house in Trenton."

Interventions resulting from the action of individuals or groups that have promoted an awareness of modern heritage, while spreading its concept of social welfare.